I'm building a speaker setup that will have el wire attached to the speakers flashing on and off with the music. The speakers are decent sized, but since they are relatively old, there are no specifications on them and I can't find anything online.

http://www.soundtube.com/Data/Techsheets/SA202-tech.pdf this is what I could find on the amplifier. Is it enough to split the output of the amp (I know that it is AC), and attach it to the el wire. I read somewhere that the speakers won't have enough volts running through the wire to power the el wire (up to 50V max). Could anyone suggest any methods to boost it?

I don't know how that would work, but you can try. The two color organs I've made and used, or music to light devices, get the audio one from a line out, and then have separate power for the lights. One is a hacked 6V powered speaker set, and the other was from a cana kit, that uses AC power to 3 strings of lights.

connect the elwire inverter across the speaker terminals instead of to a battery.

or google: music interface / control module

I believe the correct way is to hook the EL wire leads themselves up to the speakers directly. Battery power is DC.. and EL wire needs AC. The inverter takes DC power and converts to AC power. Speaker signal is AC.

As far as boosting it, that would be via an audio amplifier since you're wanting the boost to be linear with the music signal. You could have a cheap separate amp just for the EL wire if you didn't want the speakers so loud. If whatever source you're using for the music doesn't have RCA outs, look for an amp that has high level inputs.. most do.

I think we are getting a little off track. EL wire lifetime and brightness is based around specific frequencies and voltages. Simply get a sound reactive EL wire controller. Then hack the sensitivity of the mic or build a resistive pad off the speaker terminals.

Thanks for all of the replies! I was researching more, and found this: http://www.instructables.com/id/LEVEL-H ... /?ALLSTEPS the general idea of what is going on in that project seems to be what the consensus here is saying. Instead of using a sequential inverter (type used in that project), I would use a single sound activated one that would be attached to a split end of the audio out of my iPod/phone/whatever. So in short, I would split that connection, some to the speaker, and the other chunk to the hacked inverter. I would use something like this: http://www.adafruit.com/products/832

junglesmacks wrote:I believe the correct way is to hook the EL wire leads themselves up to the speakers directly. Battery power is DC.. and EL wire needs AC. The inverter takes DC power and converts to AC power. Speaker signal is AC.

The voltage is too low going to the speakers, typically something like 0.5-1.5 Vrms. You need a transformer to up the voltage by a factor of 100x or so, then it should light up the EL-Wire.

The EL-wire will respond differently to the different frequencies, particularly the highs (2000+ Hz), and will therefore add a frequency-dependent capacitive load. If you have enough EL-wire, it ought to distort the sound a bit. This is something I have wanted to try but haven't gotten around to yet. I would be curious to know if anyone had experienced distortion from EL-wire in the circuit and what it sounded like.

EDIT: Duh... output voltage of the amp is not that low - I was thinking of input. In any case, unless this is a pretty big amp the Vrms will likely be too low and a transformer will be needed

Even if you could just hook up the EL Wire to the speakers directly it wouldn't look that good as you'd need some filters to mimic a graphic equalizer (you know, those lit-up bars that show the intensity of certain frequencies).

I would just hook up something like the EL Escudo Dos to multiple strands that represent the different frequencies of the music. Then connect it up to some circuitry that uses a graphic equalizer chip. The input for that chip comes from the input signal source, which affects the output of the spectral outputs, and therefore your EL wire.

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